


Let It Grow

by Anonymous



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Gardener Geno, Lawyer Sid, M/M, Ovi Meddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-25 21:20:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12044514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: He doesn’t know a lot about Geno but after thirty years he feels like he has a pretty good understanding of himself.He’s pretty sure he has a crush on his neighbor.





	Let It Grow

Sidney doesn’t know much about his next door neighbor.

To be fair, he doesn’t know much about any of his neighbors. He only moved into his house two months ago and the majority of his time has been spent at the office settling in and meeting new clients and trying to make it look like he can absolutely handle his first job in a major law firm in a major city.

It’s going well, he thinks. He’s making connections and taking on more clients and hopefully impressing the senior associates.

All of that means long hours and working weekends and he just doesn’t have the time to to learn the ins and outs of Evgeni Malkin.

Which is a shame because for all he doesn’t know (how long he’s been in Pittsburgh, why he left Russia, if he has family nearby, what he does for a living) he really likes the bits and pieces that he does know.

Evgeni, or Geno, as he told Sid to call him, was the first, and one of the only ones to welcome him when he first moved in.

He showed up on Sid’s front porch with a shy smile and beautiful vase of flowers.

They shook hands and chatted briefly on the steps and Geno had waved off Sid’s apology for not inviting him in because the house was still a mess of half unpacked moving boxes.

He didn’t gain much from that first meeting, just Geno’s name and that he lived next door and that the neighborhood was quiet and good for families.

Sid didn’t even tell him that it was just him in the house with no plans on expanding in the future.

He didn’t get any information back from Geno either but he’s pretty sure he lives alone. There’s only one car in the driveway, a modest sedan, and no kids toys on the front lawn.

They’re acquaintances.

They’ll nod to each other as Geno’s getting his morning paper and Sid is backing out of his driveway to go to work and nod when they happen to run into each other at the grocery store, something that’s only happened twice in two months.

There’s only one thing he knows for sure.

Geno loves to garden.

He has worked nothing short of a miracle in the quarter acre lot behind his house.

There are flowers everywhere, meticulously maintained and thoughtfully planted so the colors of the blooms don’t clash.

There’s a winding slate path going through the flower beds and leading to a wooden bench and a fire pit.

Sid’s sat in his dentist's office and flipped through ancient Better Homes And Garden magazines and nothing he's ever seen in the pages compare to what Geno has created.

He takes obvious pride in it and whenever Sid allows himself to get home before the sun sets he grabs a beer and takes it out onto the back patio.

Geno is almost always in his garden. 

That's where Sid finds him tonight. 

It’s past seven but the air is still warm and humid and the bottle starts sweating as soon as he steps outside.

He has the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up to his elbows but Geno, who is kneeling in front of a patch of black-eyed susans with a trowel in his hand and a bag of potting soil to his left has decided to forgo the shirt altogether.

Even from a distance Sid can see that he has dirt up to his elbows and that his lips are moving. The words carry on the gentle breeze that’s suddenly kicked up and even though he can’t make them out he can understand the tune.

It sounds a bit like a lullaby.

Sid takes a long swig of his beer before he speaks.

“Does that work?”

Geno startles and looks embarrassed to be caught when he sees Sid standing there.

“The singing? Does it work?”

“Doesn’t hurt any,” he calls back with a shrug of his shoulder.

They’re broad and tan and his smile is warm. The fading sun turns his hair a chocolate brown.

Sid bites his bottom lip and hopes he’s too far away for Geno to notice.

He doesn’t know a lot about Geno but after thirty years he feels like he has a pretty good understanding of himself.

He’s pretty sure he has a crush on his neighbor.

It’s a stupid thing to have, and he knows that too.

He hasn’t been practicing law for long, he’s decades younger than most of the lawyers at the firm, but he’s handled his fair share of divorce cases and custody battles.

He’s seen how love can fade and turn bitter.

It’s starting to not seem worth it.

He also learned that more often than not, there's a boyfriend or a girlfriend or both involved with the divorce. He imagines the same is true for sweet, cute neighbors.

It's stupid to think that Geno is either available or interested in him.

Irresponsible.

He'll get over this. It's just a crush. He's not in high school anymore. _He’ll get over it._

“Yo. Sid. You okay?”

Kris Letang is standing in the doorway of the office.

Kris has tried to take Sid under his wing. 

Kris is outgoing and popular and  handsome enough to be featured on the firm's TV commercial which always gets him chirped to death at the coffee maker when one of them runs during a local game. Sid had laughed along until Kris pointed a finger at him and said _“if they thought you'd be halfway decent in front of the camera you'd be doing it instead of me.”_

But he's a nice guy. Sid would probably consider him a friend if he absolutely had to.

“I said are you okay?”

Kris comes fully into his office and leans on the back of the chair on the opposite side of the desk.

“I'm fine.”

“Really? Because you've been staring off into the distance for at least a solid minute. Who knows how long it was before I got here.”

“I'm fine.”

Kris rolls his eyes. “Sure. You can probably guess why just I'm here. It is Friday.”

He has been trying to get Sid to go out with the rest of their young coworkers every Friday night since he's started.

Sid has always turned him down.

“Come on,” Kris says dropping down to rest his forearms in the chair. “Five dollar beer night. I even talked the nervous looking intern into coming.”

“Jake? From the mail room?”

Kris nods.

“Please don't corrupt him.”

“Come with and babysit.”

“I have too much work to do.

“Have an intern do it and come out with us.”

“I can just do it myself.”

“They're never going to learn if you don't let them do things for you.”

“I have to make photocopies. I'll let them do that. Maybe I'll come out next week.”

Kris straightens up and taps his hands on the chair. “I'll believe it when I see it.”

 

*

 

Geno has morning glories that wind around the pergola over the patio in his backyard.

They bloom in bright purples and pinks and Geno walks around first thing in the morning in his threadbare bathrobe and waters each one.

Sid takes his morning coffee out onto his own patio because he can’t help himself.

Geno looks up when he hears the screen door open and smiles. “Morning, Sid. Sleep late today.”

Sid’s usually out the door by six on the weekdays but sleeps in religiously on the weekends. It’s really the one thing he does for himself.

“Flowers are looking good,” Sid says because he doesn’t know what else to say.

Geno tips his head from side to side as he pours the rest of the water out of the can. “They’re good. Nice weather helps. Next year, maybe not so much.”

“Why? What’s happening next year?”

Geno jerks his thumb behind him. “Ovechkin.”

Alexander Ovechkin is Geno’s neighbor to his left.

Sidney is equal parts overjoyed and sorry that Geno is there to act as a buffer.

Sid’s only had a handful of run ins with Alex since he moved in but he’s left quite the impression.

Alex had barged in empty handed and wouldn’t leave until he helped Sid unpack half the boxes crowding his living room.

He had finally left Sid two hours later with an almost too hard slap on the back and a foreboding “you and I will be best friends someday. You see.”

Sid had seen him to the door and locked it behind him.

He seems relatively harmless though. He hasn’t strong armed his way into his house since then and he always waves to people walking by when he’s outside watering his front yard.

His backyard is currently blanketed in white tufted dandelions.

“Doesn’t mow his lawn,” Geno explains. “Dandelions all go to seed, seeds blow into my yard, more weeds come up in my yard next year. Big headache.”

There are a few dandelions scattered around Sid’s own lawn and at some point when Geno’s not looking he’ll have to go out and carefully get rid of them.

“Why didn’t he mow his lawn?”

“Like to be asshole.”

“You think he did it on purpose?”

“I ask him a few weeks ago to please mow his lawn and he doesn’t.” Geno looks up, eyes bright. “Maybe I sue. You help.”

Sid laughs and then says “well, maybe.”

“Was joke, Sid.”

“No, I know. You can’t sue him over that and this isn’t even my type of law but I can always type up a strongly worded letter suggesting that he cut his lawn for the betterment of the neighborhood or whatever. Sometimes all it takes is seeing the letterhead and they get scared.”

“You serious?”

Sid shrugs. “Why not?”

“Seems a little bit….not honest.”

“You know what they say about lawyers.”

Geno shakes his head. “Not you. You’re a good one.”

“You barely know me.”

He levels him with an even look. “Just know.”

A dandelion seed makes it’s way from Ovechkin’s yard on a gust of wind and lands on Geno’s shoulder.

He sighs and flicks it off.

“Maybe one letter not such a bad idea.”

 

*

 

Sid types out the letter on Monday morning in the ten minutes that it takes Kris to tell him what he missed on Friday night.

Sid makes the proper _I’m listening_ noises and nods along in the right spots and says “maybe next week” as the printer whirs to life and he reaches behind him to grab the paper.

“You haven’t heard a word I said.”

“I have too.” He folds the letter carefully and slips it in an envelope. “You said Jake is a loud drunk.”

“Oh my god,” Kris laughs, “so loud. So young. Kind of adorable.”

Sid hums as he carefully writes out the address and seals the envelope.

“You should tell him you think that when you drop this off at the mail room for me.”

“I am not your intern,” Kris says but he takes it anyways.

“You’ll be walking right by there.”

“What is it?”

“Just something I said I’d do for my neighbor.”

“Something legal? You really need another client right now?”

“It’s nothing official. Just. Something about his lawn and his neighbor.”

Kris blinks.

“Don’t worry about it. Just drop it off in the mail room. Overnight, please.”

“Fine, fine, but we’re not done talking about this.”

“I’m sure,” Sid mumbles as he starts to check his email.

 

He comes home a bit earlier than usual the following day and walks straight through the house and out the back door.

Geno’s tending to the sunflowers along the side of his property and Ovechkin’s lawn is dandelion free.

“Hey,” he calls to Geno. “It worked.”

“Kind of,” Geno yells back. He’s kept his shirt on but the sleeves are straining against his biceps and that’s just as good. “He mowed but blew all the grass clippings into my yard. Just plant dahlias over there. Have to clean grass off.”

“You think he did that on purpose too.”

“Probably.”

“What an asshole.”

Geno laughs. “Yes. Only have one good neighbor.”

That pleases Sid much more than it should.

 

*

 

It's down hill from there. 

Alex starts dumping fruit scraps into a pile at the back edge of his property.

They both watch him eat and apple as he slowly walks across the lawn, drop the core on top of the pile and slowly walk back.

He waves before he steps back into his house and Geno swings around from where he's watering his tulips to look at Sid.

“What's he doing?”

Geno shrugs and shakes his head. “Can't be good.”

 

The next morning all of Geno’s impatiens are chewed down to the stems and Sid wakes up to Russian yelling.

Geno and Ovi are toe to toe and yelling and it’s much too loud and much too early and if Sid doesn’t get this under control there’s a good chance someone is going to call the cops.

“Deer,” Geno says. “Put all his garbage outside and attract deer.”

“I was composting,” Alex explains lazily. He’s peeling an orange and dropping the peels on the ground by his feet. “Is good for environment. Keeps things out of landfills, makes good soil. You can use some for your flowers if you want.”

“Don’t want your stupid soil.”

“I’m just trying to be neighborly. Don’t need to be rude,” he says then winks at Sid. “Got your letter. Very official. Very scary. Mow lawn just for you.”

Geno steps between them and shoves a hand into Ovi’s chest, to his obvious delight and Sid has to step into that and pull Geno back.

“Everyone needs to calm down before someone calls the cops.”

“Good thing you’re a lawyer.”

“He's my lawyer,” Geno snaps with a hand around his elbow. “You get your own.”

Sid pushes a little harder on Geno's chest and guides him back to the wicker chair on his patio. Ovechkin cackles. 

“I think maybe the letter just egged him on.”

Geno laughs, a little bitter, and looks at his garden and his half eaten plants.

“Maybe just a little bit.”

 

In the following days Geno chases three deer out of his yard.

One morning Sid has to put down his coffee and shoo an adorable rabbit away from Geno's pansies.

“Dumb,” Geno says and Sid has to agree.

 

When he gets home that night Geno's scattering dirt from a bag around his flowers.

“Keep animals away,” he explains when Sid joins him. “Beat Ovechkin. Help?”

He sticks his hand out. “What is it?”

“Blood meal.”

Sid takes his hand back. “What is that?”

“Dried animal blood mixed with soil. Deer and rabbits don't like the smell and will leave my flowers alone.”

He frowns at the bag and Geno laughs. “You eat meat, Sid. Nothing goes to waste this way.”

Sid keeps his hands at his side until a mosquito buzzes around his head and he swats at it.

Geno wipes his hands on his pants then pinches off a few sprigs of lavender. He crushes the leaves between his fingers.

“Lavender,” he says as he steps close. “Is like….mosquito repellent.” He brings his hands up to the side of Sid’s face. “Okay?”

Sid nods without knowing fully what he was saying yes too.

Geno reaches out and rubs his fingers against the side of his neck. The oil from from the lavender transfers from Geno's skin to his own.

It's-it feels like a lot. Wildly intimate and sweet and he'd give almost anything for Geno to keep his hands on him.

He crushes more between his fingertips then touches behind his ear, thumbs brushing his earlobe and moving down against the nape of his neck.

He swallows hard when Geno pulls his hands back, forcing down the disappointment of being left untouched.

“Mosquitos don't like smell,” he explains.

“Is that why you plant so much of it?”

“Maybe.” He looks Sid right in the eyes. “But pretty too. Like that.”

 

*

 

Alex gets chickens next.

There's a coop delivered to his backyard and six hens clucking around his backyard.

“Lay an egg everyday,” Alex explains. “Never have to buy them again. You know, big farms in America treat their animals so terrible. Breaks my heart.”

Sid gets that, he really does, and he's sure that Geno gets that too but when one of them wanders into his yard and starts to scratch around his tulips.

“I make fence, of course. Have to keep them safe.”

Geno nods with his arms crossed over his chest.

“But might take time. A couple of days at least. Hope they won't be too much bother.”

He does get a fence up but not before the chickens dig a hole in the middle of his gaillardia’s to give themselves a dust bath.

Geno grumbles as he fills in the hole and refuses to take the carton of fresh eggs.

Sid takes them and feels guilty as he cracks one into a pan for dinner that night.

He feels even worse when Geno comes over to tell him Ovi has been talking about fostering dogs and sees the half used carton in his fridge when he grabs a drink.

“Traitor.”

But his eyes are full of light and he's smiling and Sid pulls his tie from around his neck and says “have you had dinner yet?”

He makes omelettes with ham and cheese and bell peppers.

“Love dogs,” he says as he takes two plates out of the cabinets. “Maybe get one soon but don't want them in my yard.”

“Why don't you just put up a fence?”

“Expensive. But if I had money I would put up twenty foot fence and never see him again.”

“Don't take offense to this,” Sid says as he moves the eggs around in the pan. They're just starting to set up. “But did you do anything to him to make him do this?”

“You think this is my fault?”

“I didn't say that. I'm just trying to figure him out.”

“You hurt your head if you try to do that. Sasha is….stupid,” he says for a lack of a better term and Sid laughs. “He means well.”

“How could he mean well if he's driving you crazy?”

“Hard to explain.”

There's a lot more to it but Sid doesn't push. He just piles the omelettes onto the plates and pushes one of them towards Geno.

“I think he thinks since we're both Russian he has to look out for me.”

“But how-.”

Geno puts his hand up to stop him. “Told you. He's stupid. Been like that since I moved in.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Five years. Sasha already here. Think we're gonna be friends just because we're both from Russia. He said it was fate. I say my great aunt died and left my family the house.”

“I'm sorry about your aunt.”

“It's fine. Didn't know her. Get a letter in the mail one day from a lawyer saying she left it behind in her will. My parents were going to sell it but I was ready for something new. Thought it might be fun to come to America, live on my own.”

“Most people just move to the next town over.”

“Yes,” Geno laughs. “I like a challenge. Come here, work on English, get job. Don't make much at restaurant, only part time but don't need a lot. House paid off and car is not a big deal. Spend most money on flowers.”

“You should be a florist. You've really got a green thumb.”

Geno hums. “Don't know if I want this to be my job. I think maybe if it was I wouldn't love it as much. Too much pressure.”

He knows it's not a jab at him, Geno wouldn't do that but he can't help but take it personally.

“Just something to do for fun. Good at it. Just wish Sasha would let me.” He flicks his eyes up towards Sid. “Sorry, complain a lot.”

“It’s okay. I kind of like it.”

Geno frowns.

“I don’t mean that. I just mean it’s nice to have someone to talk to. That kind of makes me sound lonely, doesn't it?”

“Little bit.”

“I'm not lonely. I have friends at work but I'm so busy it's hard to make time to hang out. I know they all go out on Friday nights.”

“They don't invite you?”

“No, they do. One of them begs.”

“But you never go? Don’t like to have fun?”

“I do, I swear. But I just….” He shrugs. “This is fine.”

“More to life than fine, Sid.”

Sid nods but doesn't say anything. 

Geno graciously lets the silence stretch. 

 

*

 

“Mr. Crosby. Sid. Mr. Crosby.”

“Sid is fine,” he says as he looks up at Jake. His blazer is a little wrinkled and there’s ink on the side of his hand. He’s holding vase full of different types of pink flowers.

He knows immediately who they’re from.

“This came for you. I hope it was okay that I signed for it. There’s a note.” He puts the flowers down on the edge of his desk and Sid thanks him.

He passes Kris on the way out who immediately asks about the flower.

“Secret admirer?”

“No.”

“Client?”

“I haven’t read the card yet.”

He eyes Kris then quickly grabs it.

Kris laughs. “I wasn’t going to take it. I’m not a dick.”

“Uh huh,” Sid says as he slides his finger beneath the tape.

Geno's handwriting is neat and fluid and his message is simple.

_Thanks for listening. Always here to talk._

He smiles down at the note, forgetting that Kris is there until he whistles.

“Oh that's a look. It is an admirer.”

"It's none of your business."

Kris holds his hands up. "Alright. Sorry." He steps around and sits in the chair. "You want to talk about it?'

"No." He punches a few keys on his keyboard. "It's my neighbor."

"The one you wrote the letter for?"

"Yup." He looks over the top of his laptop. Kris is staring at him. "I like him."

"That's great. That's really great. Have you asked him out yet?"

"No."

"What are you waiting for? Do it."

"It's not that easy."

Kris sighs. "It really is, Sid."

 

*

 

Sid takes the flowers home with him.

Geno's car isn't his driveway but Ovi's is.

So is Ovi. He's unloading four saplings out of the back of his truck and there's a shovel leaning against the side of his house. 

"What the hell," Sid says under his breath as he puts the car in park. He gathers up his laptop bag and cradles the vase close to his chest.

Ovi turns and smile when he hears the car door slam and that's the final straw.

"What the hell is your problem," he snaps and the smile slides off Ovi's face in shock. "What now? What could you possibly be doing now to mess with him?" 

"Hello, Sidney. You have a nice day at work?"

"Why are you doing this? All he wants to do is plant his garden and you're dead set on making that as hard for him as possible. For what? What do you get out of it? Do you just like being an asshole?"

"Sidney, all I'm trying to do-." He stops and looks at flowers. "Zhenya give you those?"

Sid shifts uncomfortably. "Yeah. Why do you care?"

"You know in Russia colors of flowers is a big deal. Yellow is bad- means sadness. Don't want to get those. Red is color of passion and love." 

"Oh." He tries to hide the disappointment in his voice. 

"But pink, pink is what you give to someone when you first start dating them. Is good color to get. You know when you first move in I think, that Sidney Crosby, such a nice young man. Successful and handsome and really shouldn't be all alone in that house. And then I see the way Zhenya look at you when he think that you don't see. You go out with your coffee in the morning and he's out there in his garden and I think this is good. You two deserve each other. Will be very happy. So I wait for him to ask you out. And I wait and I wait and I wait and nothing. Figured he needed a little push. Dandelions were a perfect start."

"You didn't cut your lawn for a month because you wanted Geno to ask me out?"

"No. Lawn was just me being lazy but then I get that letter from you and I knew he had talked to you about it. Is good first step. The rest come easy. Work out in the end. Happy to help."

"You really think you're helping him? You've been driving him crazy. He hates you for all this."

"Maybe a little annoyed but not hate. He'll thank me at your wedding."

"We're not together," Sid says and Alex rolls his eyes. 

"Stupid. Both of you. What are you waiting for? This all stops if you two idiots get it together and admit that you like each other."

"Are you kidding? You'd stop messing with him if we just....asked each other out?"

"That's what this is all about."

"That's just....that's crazy. You're crazy."

"Maybe so," Ovi says. "But I'm going to return these trees to the nursery instead of planting them where they'll block his flowers from the sun and you're the one living right next door to someone who is perfect for him but won't do anything about it. Who's the real crazy one?"

 

*

 

Geno knocks on his door late that night.

He looks tired but he's smiling as he says "Going to make a fire. Ovechkin left all his windows open. Fill his house with smoke.” He holds up a bag of marshmallows and a package of chocolate. “Want to come?”

Sid holds his hands out as he follows Geno along the path. Soft petals brush his palms and he almost collides into Geno’s back when he stops by the bench. 

There's already wood in the pit and it doesn't take long for Geno to get the fire lit and roaring. 

Sid welcomes the heat that it throws off but it's nothing compared to how warm the side of Geno's body is when it presses in next to his own.

Geno carefully toasts two marshmallows while Sid holds the graham crackers and chocolate. 

"Thank you for the flowers," Sid says as he finishes off his s'more. He can feel Geno tense up next to him. 

"Welcome. Hope it was okay I sent them to your office. Hope I didn't make you uncomfortable."

"Why would that make me uncomfortable?"

"I don't know." He licks his lips. His misses a smudge of chocolate at the corner of his mouth. Sid can't look away. "Flowers. Kind of big."

"So you wanted it to mean something big?"

Geno looks distressed for a moment and Sid puts his hand firmly on his thigh. 

"I wanted it to mean something big."

Their noses bump right before they kiss.

Geno has a hand on his neck and the other on the side of his face. 

Sid squeezes his thigh.

He tastes sweet like marshmallow and chocolate and he gently tips Sid’s head to the side to get a better angle.

They kiss until Ovechkin gets home and starts yelling about the smoke in his house, slamming down windows as he moves through it. 

Geno curls his fingers around the shell of Sid's ear and Sid huffs a laugh into the next kiss. 

 

* 

 

Kris sticks his head in his office at the end of the day.

“Friday? You coming?”

There is a pile of work in front of him.

He has a custody hearing first thing Monday morning and a annulment right after that and there’s just so much to do-.

But then he thinks of Geno and kissing him softly in the garden next to the warm glow of the fire pit. Walking hand in hand to Geno's door after they put the fire out and Sid following him through it. Waking up next to him in the morning and trading lazy kisses in Geno's kitchen until he absolutely had to leave to get ready for work.

He puts his pen down. 

“Yeah. I'll go.”

Kris looks shocked and Sid smiles.

“Do you mind if I bring someone?”


End file.
